# AVG flagging an ad **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 15, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851 "2009-10-15T00:53:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/1 "2009-10-15T00:53:29Z")
I have seen 3 ads pop now as “AVG has blocked this link for virus and or spyware activity” Anyone else getting this? ---
**Author:** ![Donovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@Donovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donovan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/2 "2009-10-15T12:03:26Z")
early this morning I have had an AVG plug-in flag this site as security compromised - in retrospect, probably because of an ad ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/3 "2009-10-15T15:16:53Z")
We have no virus or spyware on this site – you’ve picked something up somewhere else that is getting triggered by the calls in the ad software. AVG is reading it as coming from this site and it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/4 "2009-10-15T15:57:02Z")
AVG is blocking a lot of sites lately that they didn’t use to. Sometimes if I retry it isn’t flagged. Sometimes it is. I’m not sure what is going on. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/5 "2009-10-15T17:31:38Z")
This just happened to me with one of Cecil’s columns. I opened it in a new tab, and got one of those AVG warnings. I closed the tab, thinking that I might have been redirected somehow, and tried to open the column twice more, getting the same warning. It worked normally on the fourth attempt. I certainly believe TubaDiva’s assertion, otherwise I wouldn’t be here, but maybe some bad guy… did something… like hiding viruses/spyware in one of the ads? Is something like that possible? ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/6 "2009-10-15T17:46:06Z")
I hope it’s not another failure on AVG’s part they screwed up bigtime with I-tunes a couple months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/7 "2009-10-15T17:46:48Z")
Too late to edit: I also just noticed something odd about some threads I have open. They seem to be reloading themselves spontaneously. Maybe I should move up my regularly scheduled scans. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/8 "2009-10-15T17:47:53Z")
Weird- I had it trigger a few minutes ago when I was opening a piece of mail from Yahoo. Not sure why, it didn’t come up again when I re-opened it. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/9 "2009-10-15T18:10:38Z")
Not to minimize or trivialize anyone’s pain, but why aren’t you using Avast? Anyway, Tuba is right. Ads come from the sites they come from. Not this one. But I don’t see how that could trigger an anti-virus message unless the foreign site is using an Iframe. Which, if so, is a terrible security leak that SDMB should plug up immediately. As in right now. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/10 "2009-10-16T16:18:14Z")
I think this bears repeating: AVG is the ZoneAlarm of AV suites. Stop using it. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/11 "2009-10-16T16:48:10Z")
I’m not necessarily saying that is the problem, but I wonder if AVG on the OP’s computer is complaining about [malvertisements](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,552301,00.html) (I just picked one link - googling gets you lots of hits). ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avg-flagging-an-ad/513851/12 "2009-10-16T22:56:47Z")
OP: AVG, in my experience, has a lot of false positives. The only way for anyone else to check is for you to provide links to the ads. Candjun: For once, a Microsoft news item where the company looks good. Malverts are the reason I keep my ad blocking software on, even on sites I like. Once you’ve had a particularly nasty strain of Vundo that even hoses your recovery partition, you get paranoid like that.